Alec Baldwin’s testimony was contradicted in the final FBI forensics report on the accidental shooting that killed “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins because it claimed that Hutchins’ gun could not have fired “without a pull of the trigger while the working internal components were intact and functional.”
Baldwin said that he did not pull the trigger during a scene’s rehearsing while he was shooting a gun at the camera in a December 2021 interview with ABC News. Baldwin claimed he has informed the weapon was “cold,” or unloaded of live rounds. Director Joel Souza was hurt when the gun was discharged while Hutchins was mortally wounded.
“I’m not shooting to camera lens. I’m holding the gun where she told me to hold it, which turned out to be below her armpit,” Baldwin told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. “But we kept doing this…. I start to cock the gun. She said, just ‘cheat it down, could you see that, could you see that.’ I let go of the hammer of the gun, the gun goes off.”
“The trigger wasn’t pulled,” he insisted. “I would never point a gun at anyone and pull a trigger at them. Never.”
Alec Baldwin: “I didn’t pull the trigger.”
A FBI analysis of the gun held by Baldwin during the shooting that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins has been complete. It has concluded “the firearm used in the shooting could not have been fired without pulling the trigger”. pic.twitter.com/YNh1wBjaH2
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) August 14, 2022
However, in a shocking report released on Friday, ABC News claimed to have obtained a copy of the Bureau’s most current forensic analysis report…which was conducting a thorough investigation of the terrible accident to see whether any criminal charges should be filed.
The revolver in question was a single-action .45 Colt caliber F.lli Pietta, which could not have been shot without someone pushing the trigger, according to ABC, citing a portion of the FBI study. A conclusion they reached after performing testing for unintentional discharge tests using the same single-action, .45 Colt Pietta gun that Baldwin was using at the time of the incident.
The studies also showed that if the hammer was not cocked back, “without a pull of the trigger when the hammer was struck directly,” the gun could only fire a primer and not a projectile.
Before sending the “Rust” case to prosecutors for potential charges, Santa Fe investigators waited for the FBI ballistics study to be finished. After turning over his phone to Suffolk County police in New York, actor Alec Baldwin is now being waited on by investigators for his phone records.
A “prop gun” as CBS News calls it doesn’t kill people. Alec Baldwin aiming a loaded gun at someone and pulling the trigger does. https://t.co/UF4QKgM4Gr
— H.L. Chiselfritz (@RotNScoundrel) August 14, 2022
He had previously stated that he was cooperating and delivering those documents to the New York police department (so that they could transfer them to NM), but it appears that someone may be delaying things. Following that, the D.A. can have a review that is definitive… with any supporting material, the FBI’s findings, and their own findings.
The Suffolk County Police Department in New York’s homicide and computer crimes section investigators are still actively aiding the Santa Fe Sheriffs’ office in obtaining and processing Alec Baldwin’s phone data.
Hutchins was killed on October 21, 2021, by a live bullet fired by Baldwin from a pretend gun while they were filming “Rust” at the Bonanza Creek Ranch outside of Sante Fe, New Mexico.
Sources: Abcnews, Westernjournal, Nypost